The Best Of The Dish Today

After all the rancor of the last few days, it’s great to focus on something positive in the gay world. That interview above is, to me at least, deeply, deeply moving. It’s really worth watching in full. How much better to advance understanding this way than by getting people fired.

Alas, the discourse police have been busy again. My friend Ayaan Hirsi Ali is now the latest casualty of the culture war in which elements of the hard left seem far less interested in a free exchange of ideas, than in the rigid imposition of a new orthodoxy. She just had her honorary degree from Brandeis withdrawn after the usual complaints about “sensitivity”. Yes, she’s controversial. She has said some tough, tough things about Islam. But if she hasn’t earned the right to say those things, who has? She made a statement today about it, which you can find here. Money quote:

What was initially intended as an honor has now devolved into a moment of shaming. Yet the slur on my reputation is not the worst aspect of this episode. More deplorable is that an institution set up on the basis of religious freedom should today so deeply betray its own founding principles. The “spirit of free expression” referred to in the Brandeis statement has been stifled here, as my critics have achieved their objective of preventing me from addressing the graduating Class of 2014. Neither Brandeis nor my critics knew or even inquired as to what I might say. They simply wanted me to be silenced. I regret that very much.

I regret it every time someone is silenced by intimidation.

Speaking of shaming, the most trafficked post of the day was my take on a chance to end HIV among gay men, “Why Aren’t Gay Men On The Pill?” – and how hideous shaming of men protecting themselves from HIV may be perpetuating the epidemic. Next up: the final roundup of reader emails in the thread, “A Nation Defined By White Supremacy?” Other popular posts included a depressing look at how prisons have replaced psychiatric hospitals, followed by hathos-filled trailer about a guy infatuated with attractive female bloggers.